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I made blue things!

Okay, I dyed a bit of wool in the leftovers from one of my woad preservation experiments, but it’s a start.

My first experiment was actually the third time with using the instructions at this site: http://www.woad.org.uk/html/extraction.html. The first time, it worked quite well but my son threw out the resulting woad in a fit of kitchen tidying. The second time, didn’t follow the instructions and ended up with a bit of chlorophyll at the bottom of a jar. This time, I managed to do almost everything according to the instructions. I should have waited a bit longer before cutting the leaves, and forgot to cover them in plastic overnight, and I didn’t consolidate the liquid after the first draining, but none of those errors appear to have been fatal. You can’t really tell in the picture below, but the jar has some solids settling to the bottom.

I used the leftover liquid to dye some wool. I didn’t have any Spectralite or sodium dithionite. Looking elsewhere, that didn’t appear to be a critical lack. As I had added soda ash to process the woad I assumed it was still in the liquid and didn’t add more. That may have been a mistake. I’ll try again with soda ash to see if I can get a bit more colour out of the exhaust bath. Woad.org says that there isn’t much woad in the leftover liquid, so I’m pleased with the little bit of colour I did achieve.

Finally, I made a woad ball. using these instructions: http://www.woad.org.uk/html/woad_balls.html. I followed all the instructions except for the one about wearing gloves (I could only find one, and a finger ripped off as I was putting it on the first time, so this instruction was only partly followed). Also, though it wasn’t written down, there should have been an instruction about wearing a big apron or old clothes that you don’t mind getting permanently splotched with woad juice. I will get to use the woad ball later this summer, when my friend Eluned lets me play with her urine fermentation vat.